Discipline: the highest order of business.

• Jurisdiction: United States
• Author: Blankenship, Gary
• Date: 01 April 2000

Talk with enough people about Florida Bar history and one theme that stands out is devotion to the discipline system. Concern with improving the Bar's grievance system to protect the public has been a constant, if somewhat in the background, theme of the Bar. Indeed, improving the grievance system both to improve professionalism and protect the public was cited as one of the reasons for the creation of The Florida Bar.

"The grievance system, I think, has occupied the highest priority within the Bar because of the profound belief within The Florida Bar that lawyers must measure up, they must be honest, they cannot misappropriate funds, they must be fair to their clients and serving the public has got to be the highest order of business for every practicing lawyer," said former Bar Executive Director Marshall Cassedy.

Years ago, when volunteer lawyers were used to prosecute and act as referees in grievance cases, Cassedy said there was never a problem getting an attorney to take a case, even a difficult one.

The late Kenneth Sherouse, who in 1954 became the Bar's first executive director, cited the creation of a workable grievance system as one of the major accomplishments of the Bar's first five years.

"The grievance procedure is the main thing in the beginning that it did," recalled retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen C. O'Connell.

But a workable system was only the start, as the Bar nearly continually has reviewed and revamped its rules and procedures. Today the Board of Governors has the Disciplinary...